Nearby Theaters

The Buck Theatre located on the corner of W. Jackson Street & Lameuse Street was a small neighborhood theatre near downtown Biloxi. Its screen was located in the front of the building behind the concessions, with its projection booth in the rear of the building. It was destroyed by a fire in 1965.

The following item appeared on page one of the local newspaper on December 17, 1936………The Buck Theatre, formerly the Gaiety Theatre, on the northwest corner of Lameuse and Jackson Streets opened in late December. Arsene O. Bourdon was the manager of the movie house, with over 400 seats, which approximately 100 were in the balcony.

Ads from the years of 1917 and 1919 also list the Gaiety theatre in Biloxi with the same manager Arsene O. Bourdon. There are also ads as far back as 1912 for the Gaiety Theatre with the same manager. Arsene O. Bourdon died in 1959.

Looking through some old ads for the Gaiety Theatre and the Bijou Theatre, I find that both theatres were operating in Biloxi at the same time in the early 1900’s. The Bijou Theatre was located on west Howard Avenue and the Gaiety Theatre on the corner of Lameuse and Jackson Street. After seeing the ads I would not think the Buck Theatre was orginally the Bijou.

This web page has some history of Biloxi’s theaters, and it indicates that the Buck Theatre was on the northwest corner of Jackson and Lameuse Streets. It apparently began as an airdome theater called the Gaiety in 1912, and was renamed the Past Time Theatre in 1914. At some later point an indoor theater was built on the site, and it returned to the name Gaiety. It was a Saenger house when remodeled in 1927, and was still operated by Saenger when it was again remodeled and renamed the Buck Theatre in 1936.

This house was never called the Bijou. The Bijou opened in 1910, and was renamed the Crown Theatre (Biloxi’s second house of that name) in 1914. In 1920, the Gaiety and the Crown were both being operated by the Gulf Coast Amusement Company.